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May 2, 2008

Athanasius

Athanasius

Today is the Feast Day of Athanasius. He is a father or Doctor of the Church. Born of Christian parents in Alexandria, Egypt around 295, he was around when Christianity was becoming the religion of the Empire.

He spent several years with the Desert Father Anthony and wrote his life story, which became very famous and is still in print today. The majority of his life was spent fighting Arianism, which he thought would be easy. But he was exiled five times for his defense of Christ's divinity.

He could probably write as did Paul in II Corinthians 11:26-28, "In hard traveling I've had to ford rivers, fend off robbers, struggle with friends, struggle with foes. I've been at risk in the city and in the country, betrayed by those I thought were my brothers... And that's not the half of it, when you throw in the daily pressures and anxieties of all the churches."

The Council of Nicaea of 325 condemned Arianism and had to expand and affirm it further in 381 at the Council of Constantinople.